The 1972 movement of Asians expelled by Ugandan dictator Idi Amin was the first test of Canada’s “universal” immigration policy as applied to refugees. Former diplomat Michael Molloy will examine the reasons behind Amin’s decision and the Canadian reaction in a free public lecture Monday, October 15, at 7 p.m. in room 105, Memorial Hall.

Molloy will describe how a small, hastily assembled team—which included him—went to Kampala in September 1972 and moved more than 6,000 refugees to Canada by the November 8 deadline imposed by the Ugandan government. His talk will also examine the impact of the Ugandan experience on the refugee resettlement provisions of the 1976 Immigration Act and on the subsequent Indochinese refugee program of 1979-80.

Molloy is a senior fellow of the University of Ottawa’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs and co-director of the Jerusalem Old City Initiative at the University of Windsor. He served as coordinator of the Middle East Peace Process at the Department of Foreign Affairs from 2000 to 2003 and was Canadian ambassador to Jordan from 1996 to 2000.

His appearance is sponsored by the political science and history departments and the Centre for Studies in Social Justice.